I don’t know about you, but I find myself perplexed over why Google can’t seem to do TV right. For over a year now I have been waiting for an android box worthy of my living room, but so far no dice. To me, a good device needs to pack a version of android akin to jelly bean with specs comparable or better to the best tablets like the Asus Transformer series. Is it too much hassle to ask for something like the Revue or Vizio’s new offering with a Tegra 3+ and plenty of memory so I can do some gaming a la On Live or Splashtop to my PC? Throw in DVR powers, 3rd party support, beautiful design like the Q, an affordable price point, and I would be in. What do you all think?

Edit (8/29): I suppose I should try and tie this in with Mobile somehow since this is an Android forum and they’re promoting mobile entertainment this week…Below AirPlay was discussed and Google tried this with the Q in a way. While mobile broadcast to a TV from a tablet or phone is clearly the best thing to hit the living room since the DVR or remote control, Google moreso than Apple must realize they can’t restrict this to the Nexus line in relation to items like the Q. They need to leverage their open platform to allow ANY device to send media over, including begrudgingly, Apple devices. Like it or not, they are a big player in mobile entertainment and the sooner Google plays nice, the sooner more people will find devices like the Q attractive. The demo they did at I/O earlier this year was neat and all, but let’s face it; no group of friends are going to own nothing but Nexus devices for AirPlay like sharing. We can promote adoption of the Nexus line all we want as self-proclaimed accolades of Google’s domain which I’ll be the first to say how awesome it is, but we do live in a real world, and the sooner Google realizes this and builds this technology to work with their own and all their OEM partner ecosystems (meaning native Android feature), the sooner we can all enjoy sharing pics and videos on the fly at our next mixer with friends.

Just my two cents. My desire for a good Google living room box ranks right up there with wireless smartphone in-dash mirroring / speaker integration in my car so I don’t have to rely on crappy, proprietary navigation systems anymore (not that I do thanks to my trusty lifehacker made binder clip smartphone holder). Expand on that with Google’s still-baking Glass tech on the windshield for amazing holographic overlays, and my friends, you can finally say “welcome to the future,” even if they don’t quite have the car flying yet, lol.

Here’s hoping that the Nexus Q comes back better than ever. If they could add some Google TV/gaming capabilities in addition to the “social” content streaming, it’d definitely be a top contender. Heck, it’s already got snazzy looks. It just needs to be able to do more for the price they were asking.

I absolutely agree! I mean it’s really not that hard! Integrate a real smooth video player that does indeed play everthing (oh yes I’m looking at you Sony Box without DTS) fluently, provides a nice and fluent for TV optimized UI, some network sharing and downloading options, some DVR options and some apps. That’s all there is. It’s like they want to be unsuccesfull. They could let me talk with their designers and engineers and they could do it in less than a month – Google’s engineers are able to manufacture great products, we all know that, so why not with the TV….-.-’

Whoa. Hold on a minute. You want all those features for $100. Have you seen what Apple puts on Apple TV? When you add things like a great processor, DVR capabilities, gaming capabilities (no matter how light), and all the extra little features you mention, the price goes up. Trust me, if what you were saying was possible for that price, you’d see a lot of options already. Apple decided to go with a dead simple box that barely had any features besides TV. They slowly but surely added features, but the one killer feature they have is AirPlay. You saw the price of the Q. Even if they made it in China, I’m not sure they’d be able to bring the price down that much. The problem that we have is that we’ve been removed from the price of TV boxes for so long, since we just usually rented them from the cable companies, or they were included in the price. The truth is that these things cost money. And doing things like bringing it down in size or having the latest SoC also add to the cost.

We have AirPlay for android also if you want to push video and pictures to your tv through iMediaShare lite or you could go with pro. But i do not own an Apple Tv and i was not aware that it can do DVR, if thats what you were saying. And im sure service like DVR will not be available due to the Cable companies but then again you could always just connect your computer to your tv and get these features. But that also has a nice price tag. Once Android has a true screen capture ability where you can use it as a DVR it would be able to compete with these computers like the MacMini. But for now we have these 100 dollar set top boxes.

OnLive played decent on the Revue. And VIZIO Co-Star has it featured. But my Revue did suck when I hooked up my External 2 terabyte to it. It would freeze, so i just stoped doing that and now i just use iMediaShare Lite to stream my videos to my tv. The app comunicates with my Revue like Airplay for Apple.

I was this close to getting a Revue when it hit fire-sale prices, but then I thought I might want to use it like a gaming console at times and knowing the specs stayed my wallet. Logitech seems to have all but abandoned it too, which saddens me because their peripherals are unmatched!

Heh, thanks for replying guys! I think Google should poll us for a focus group pronto :) I agree 100 bucks might be asking a bit much for something of this calibur but if it were priced like a gaming console (probably along the lines of an Xbox 360 or PS3), I think it could still be attractive, assuming it can interface with home theater systems too like the Q already does (for the love of God too Google, if you’re reading this, wireless rear speakers please!).

I think what people want/need is a device that can function like a Media Center PC with options for lots of storage with the simple, elegant functionality of a smartphone. This is what I want at least so I don’t have to put a 2nd “desktop” in my house. I already have a custom rig for my home server, but I use it for work so it needs its own desk I’m afraid.

Thanks again for the feedback! Good to know I’m not the only one out there that wants something of this nature that isn’t a half-assed attempt like the Q; a good first attempt though it was.

I’ll also be interested to see how the Ouya does since this is clearly the closest thing to get to what we’re dreaming of here. Unfortunately though, I don’t think it’ll make it without Google’s backing and Nexus branding. Nexus TV, anyone?

If Ouya can make a $100 android video games console, I think google could do something similar with fully fledged multimedia content and all the latest features.
Could be interesting if they entered the games console/entertainment market.

Why not right? They’ve already go into telecommunications with Fiber and hardware with Motorola ; seems like a very logical step to go full on into home entertainment as well and compete head to head with Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo in the Arena. 1st party titles are something they’re lacking there though. Thanks for the feedback!

Have any of you kept up with DYLE, its TV over the air for your android phone. Only samsung has it for now and it would be awsum to implement on a larger screen. I could just use this to cut my cable company off just add an HDMI, DVR function and its good to go.http://www.dyle.tv/